


The Persistence of Memory

by Morbane



Series: The Persistence of Memory [3]
Category: The Middleman (TV)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Constructive Criticism Welcome, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-22
Updated: 2013-02-22
Packaged: 2017-12-03 05:54:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/694909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morbane/pseuds/Morbane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At dusk, a new day begins. (Especially if wacky time hijinks are involved.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Persistence of Memory

**Author's Note:**

  * For [were_duck](https://archiveofourown.org/users/were_duck/gifts).



It was almost dark when Wendy woke up for a second time. Lacey was at her desk, her desk lamp on, the remains of a tofu burger at her elbow.

“Hey! How are you doing? Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” said Wendy. “Let's hope the rest of me’s back with my appetite.”

She honed in on make-everything-better gelato and perched on the side of Lacey’s desk. Lacey was frowning at an open text document. In the right column of the document, Lacey had typed “AFTER THE DOLPHIN?” and a sentence or two; in the left column, a set of inspirational animal macros marched down the page.

“Have you been here the whole time?” Wendy asked.

“Yup,” said Lacey. She gestured at the burger. “Noser ran out for food.”

“Aww,” said Wendy. “How’s progress?”

“Well, I recorded the GPGP monologue,” said Lacey, “and read up on my favourite blogs, and now it’s time for the Natural Causes activist newsletter. I’m in the zone, Dub-Dub.”

“Sweet,” said Wendy. “Hey, did you see my souvenir of the day? Solar system model thing? Tells time by planets?”

“Over there, Dub-Dub,” said Lacey, pointing. “You were muttering about the tune it was playing, so I gave you some distance.”

“It _works_?” said Wendy. She picked the thing up by its base, avoiding being whacked in the eye by a stiffly revolving Neptune, and listened closely. The sound she heard wasn’t melodic. It was more like a buzz.

“Well, it’s not exactly under warranty,” she muttered, and shook it.

An ant fell out of the sun.

It was larger, had more limbs, and was somehow more _golden_ than the drones that Wendy and the Middleman had previously destroyed.

“ _Hey_ ,” said Wendy. “I bet _you’re_ why I’ve been going out of my head all afternoon. I don’t know how we missed you, but I do _not_ allow alien mind-mess-age.”

She reached for a jam jar. A frying pan. Anything.

Her Middlewatch came to life.

“Wait!” it entreated her.

Wendy paused.

“I have hijacked the communicative functions of your device to talk to you. So let’s talk,” said the ant queen.

“You’re a trespassing alien. Your first set of drones displaced the entirety of Greenwich three inches to the west. Your second set of drones caused scientists to believe they’d recorded a particle travelling faster than the speed of light. Your third set of drones destroyed a pacemaker factory. You’re a public menace!”

“That’s how my species _works!_ ” protested the queen. “The first few drone sets adapt erratically to a new environment. I have to make mistakes so I can learn from them!”

"Dub-Dub," said Lacey, "Are you threatening a member of a sentient species?"

Wendy couldn't deny this. "Sun-dial-stroke might be catching?" she tried.

"If this is an illusion," Lacey said firmly, "there are even fewer reasons to commit murder."

"When the creature whose existence is under consideration is the _cause_ of the illusion, there is _every_ reason to commit murder."

"Fine," said the ant. "What makes you think you can kill me anyway? I _manipulate time_." The orrery vanished. The orrery returned.

"See?"

Wendy's eyes narrowed. "I assume I can kill you because you're making the effort to ask me not to."

"Maybe I just care about your moral development," said the ant. (Lacey made an affirmative noise.)

"Try again," said Wendy.

Her watch heaved an enormous, anthropic sigh.

"Fine," said the queen. "We've already had this conversation. You attempt to kill me. Or you call up your leader. Occasionally, you go back in time. You try to smoke me out. I escape. You try again. It's exhausting. Also, your roommate had some interesting suggestions about parts of your world where entropy _could_ use some speeding up, no harm to you."

"Such as?"

"Oh, rubbish dumps!" Lacey enthused. "Think about plastic actually _degrading_."

"See?" said the queen. "Meanwhile, I am still here. Your efforts have got you nowhere. Can't we _both_ win?"

Wendy's first instinct was to say _no_. Agreeing to tie went against all of her competitive instincts. And if what the ant said was true, it knew a lot more than she did. It could also be withholding - or exaggerating - important information.

If she succeeded in reversing time on her own - which, hey, never expected _that_ to be a perk of the job - she could also prevent Lacey from ever knowing about entropic alien ants. Which was part of being an effective and loyal Middleminion.

Maybe this was just Round One.

"This is round _three_ ," added the ant.

"And neither of us remembers any of it, huh," said Lacey.

"Your memories are not exactly Wendy's priority," said the ant.

" _Hey_ ," said Wendy. That was not fair. That was _really_ hitting below the belt.

She thought about it.

If her future involved time reversal, it could involve time reversal _at any point_. The more time that went by, the higher the stakes, but it could surely do no harm to regroup.

"I'll give you a day," she said.

"And in return?"

"You give _me_ a day," said Wendy. "You already stole one by making me blurry and sick-"

"-a result of your choice of combative time travel-"

"-whatever. You take all three of us _back_ a day, and you do your thing, and we'll do ours, and when I'm back at this time again I'll see if I need to do something about _you_."

"Three of us?" Lacey said.

"Yeah," said Wendy. "It has been _way too long_ since I had a day off. I am playing hooky. Do you want to play hooky with me?"

"All night bookstores?" said Lacey. "Jazz? A road trip? Looking at the stars? Something - memorable?"

"You bet. You in?"

"Let's go."

"Noser," said Lacey. "Do you believe in the future?"

"Sure," said Noser. "I'll just live in my car."

"Our radio," said Lacey, "is tuned to the voice of a star."

 

 

 

 


End file.
